Hospital 'The mother lode'

New hospital means jobs for workers.

New hospital means jobs for workers.

December 08, 2005|ED RONCO Tribune Staff Writer

MISHAWAKA -- Positive economic ripples could be felt here long before Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center opens the doors of its new medical complex in 2009. In fact, it will be felt first by the people who wire the lights and hang the doors. Constructing the $355 million project -- announced Wednesday by the South Bend-based Saint Joseph Regional -- is estimated to require an average of 300 workers on the site every day, hospital officials say. "This is kind of like the mother lode," said Mike Kruk, business agent for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 413. "Something of this size comes around here once every 10 years." Kruk said it's likely some new jobs will be created to fill the need for carpenters and other skilled tradespeople. When it's all done, the new Mishawaka campus will include a two-story diagnostic and treatment center, several three-story medical office buildings, and multiple seven-story inpatient towers that will provide 254 private rooms. The complex will be built on 90 acres in the Edison Lakes area of Mishawaka, south of Douglas Road. M.A. Mortenson Construction of Minneapolis will handle the construction. The architects are Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK) of St. Louis. Adams Project Management of Rome, Ga., will oversee project management. The hospital said it hopes to break ground in spring 2006 and complete the project in time for a 2009 opening. Long-term projects are good news for people in the building trades, Kruk said. "They're not going to be out there for six or eight weeks and then be laid off," he said. Bob Warnock III, president of Teamsters Local 364 in South Bend, said his union's members also will see a boost from the project in areas such as site preparation and paving. "For those Readymix drivers, that would be a lot of concrete," he said. "It would be a big deal for the Teamsters." The total Mishawaka project could represent 20 percent of the total construction work that occurs in St. Joseph County in any given year, said Gary Wetzel, business development manager for Ancon Construction in Goshen. It also will greatly boost amount of work available in private commercial construction, he said. Mark Eagan, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County, said the project will be "an economic boom" in terms of the construction jobs it brings. "It's going to be one of the largest projects our community has seen in years," Eagan said. There also could be more jobs in the works once something happens to the hospital's current site in South Bend. The most probable scenario would see the demolition of the hospital building and the redevelopment of the site. And Kruk, of the carpenter's union, said the project could lead to additional development in the area, prolonging the benefit for builders. "Who knows what else it could spin off there," he said. "If there is an opportunity for the existing place here in South Bend, that could open some doors as well." Staff writer Ed Ronco: eronco@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6467